Opticare Innovations has been created as a subsidiary of the Optical Suppliers Association (OSA) to provide guidance and expertise to the optical industry.
The new company will consult on technology developments with stakeholders, launch a certifiable programme on sustainability and advise on interoperability between software systems.
Karl Jeebaun, former chair of e-health committee at the OSA and executive director at Advanced Ophthalmic Systems, will lead Opticare Innovations as CEO.
He told Optician that Opticare Innovations would start work on three key areas it had identified; the first being stakeholder engagement on technology.
‘Where can we work with the NHS to find solutions for them? And through that, we can work with the Association of British Dispensing Opticians and the College of Optometrists to make sure we’ve got the appropriate scopes of practice for that technology.
‘We have the opportunity to bring the suppliers to the table and work collaboratively. That’s us opening our doors to everyone and saying, “If you’ve got a problem, let’s work together to try and solve that problem,” whether you are a commercial or a public entity.’
The second area was the launch of a green charter and a sustainability programme that offered certification for businesses for meeting sustainability requirements.
‘The last is interoperability, which is the digital imaging and communications in medicine (Dicom) standard that is being worked on by the entire industry; suppliers, the NHS and the Colleges,’ Jeebaun explained.
‘We got to a point where the sharing of information became a challenge with some of the commercial entities and they wanted an independent body to sit in the middle. We put our hands up as the suppliers’ organisation. We did the first round of testing and got good results from it. We’re hoping to formalise that relationship for the OSA to potentially become the independent assessment body for interoperability in the UK.’
Raising the standard
Over the past 18 months in his role as e-health committee chair at the OSA, Jeebaun has explored the transformation of eye care, sustainability and Dicom.
‘I’ve been looking at all of these different threads and seeing how the OSA can best place itself within the industry to support those initiatives. But secondly, how do we generate income for the OSA?’ he said.
Roy Stoner, chair of the OSA, added that there had been an enormous amount of activity in e-health, including auto-refraction and online refraction, but technology was being produced to varying standards.
‘Some people were being truly diligent and going through proper clinical trials and other people were shifting software out onto the internet that really had no clinical verification whatsoever. We saw that as a problem for the industry and we saw it as a problem for our members because our members were trying to do it properly with clinical verification,’ Stoner said.
Stoner highlighted that Jeebaun’s insight provided the OSA with in-depth knowledge and understanding of these developments.
‘It’s a major concern for the whole industry, which is why we wanted to get involved with other bodies because there is so much rubbish available online and we’re just trying to improve the standards of what is used and adopted,’ Stoner added.
Jeebaun explained that e-health encompassed everything from Microsoft Teams all the way through to artificial intelligence, and that regulations and standards differed for medical software and non-medical technology, which Jeebaun said created issues for developers and adopters.
‘There’s a load of tech that’s not coming into the industry or being utilised that could potentially have a massive impact on NHS waiting lists or on revenue generation on the high street because there’s this huge grey area between the build and adoption,’ he said.
Jeebaun added that the OSA set out to address this issue and early engagement had been positive with bodies, such as the College of Optometrists, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the NHS.
Conversations explored how the industry should address this problem, how to widen the scope of practice and who should be using this software in the practice?
He explained to Optician that the creation of a commercial entity allowed the OSA to work with stakeholders and have conversations that were not happening.
‘If you have that feedback loop from industry saying, “This is where our pain points are, this is where we think technology can really help us,” that helps suppliers in developing technology that fits into the market rather than something it thinks the market wants,’ Jeebaun said.
Stoner added the OSA now had the opportunity to provide more advanced packages that would improve or aid diagnosis of issues, but also the exchange of information with practitioners.
A big undertaking
Dicom is another area the industry has struggled to navigate and Jeebaun noted that if there was a minimum criteria for three different themes then interoperability should be easier.
He explained that during the incarnation of Dicom, various different formats of the structure have been created, which meant when an image was sent from a device made by one supplier to another device sent by a different supplier, there might be missing data or it might not open the file at all.
‘The three themes were: set a minimum criteria for patient information that’s being supplied, ensure the image or video is viewable on anybody’s Dicom reader, and have a minimum set application dependent for clinical information that is supplied.
‘This was a fairly big undertaking and we’ve done the patient data portion of that. We had over 90% commonality across the suppliers already, so that was a positive step in the right direction. Now, we’re moving onto the last two themes,’ Jeebaun said.
He added that the OSA has managed what requirements were expected from the industry and then compared that to what has already been attained by suppliers to find a middle ground.
‘If we can have a joined up approach across the industry, whether it be a practice, a locum a software provider, or a manufacturer, it becomes much more manageable and credible,’ Jeebaun said.
A greener future
A green charter has also been created and will be flexible to span all sectors within eye care and meet the needs of different sized businesses operating in different areas to fulfill the needs of a diverse industry.
The OSA established a sustainability committee in 2020 for optical businesses to share experiences and best practices, which led to the creation of the green charter. Opticare Innovations will now manage the charter and work with the industry to improve sustainability outcomes.
Jeebaun summarised: ‘There are multiple levels and each one becomes progressively more robust. One and two are almost gateway entries into sustainability and are quite easy to achieve. Level one is the baseline in your business, for instance, see where you are today. Level two is showing a progression of that.’
He added that Opticare has launched the first two levels in a pilot phase and would release the other levels next year because they required a larger effort from businesses.
‘There is a requirement for them to go and get a carbon reduction plan. If you want to supply the NHS, in some cases, you already have to have one. As suppliers, we are not carbon footprint experts, so we are bringing in experts and looking to form affiliate programmes that will make it cost effective,’ Jeebaun explained.
The framework was designed to help businesses make gradual and meaningful improvements over time. Companies were encouraged to look at all aspects of their business, including: leadership and communication, supply chain and shipping, facilities management and product design.
Across these four points businesses were encouraged to: appoint a sustainability officer and embed sustainability into the company culture; assess the sustainability of their supply chains and shipping practices; look at the day-to-day operations of a business; and to design products using sustainable materials, ensuring they were durable and repairable.
The OSA noted that as patients and consumers become more aware of the choices they make, the optical sector has a unique opportunity, and a responsibility, to demonstrate leadership in sustainability.
It added that by undertaking the green charter, businesses could improve their own sustainability practices and contribute to leading the optical industry toward a greener future.
